A young person, A.S.L., was charged with multiple counts of sexual assault.
The defence brought a motion for a stay of proceedings due to undue delay under section 11(b) of the Charter.
The total delay from charge to anticipated trial conclusion exceeded the 18-month ceiling for provincial court matters.
The court found that the majority of the delay was attributable to the Crown's failure to provide timely disclosure, despite repeated requests from the defence.
While 30 days of delay were attributed to the defence for not raising all pre-trial motions at the first judicial pre-trial, this was insufficient to bring the net delay below the ceiling.
The Crown's argument that the COVID-19 pandemic constituted an exceptional circumstance was rejected, as the Crown could have mitigated the delay by providing disclosure earlier.
As the Crown failed to rebut the presumption of unreasonable delay, a stay of proceedings was granted.
